Mom is Santa Real?

There is one detail about Christmas that I left out. Let me start by saying that as a child my parents told me the truth about Santa from day one. Therefore I am not practiced in the art of Santa storytelling. Well about 3 weeks before Christmas Nicholas began questioning me about Santa. Last year I had to tell Nicholas that I could call Santa to make a change to his Christmas list. When he asked if he could talk to Santa I told him that Santa only talks to adults. Well this year he started with the questions again. I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to lie but I wasn't sure if Nicholas was old enough to hear the truth. I called a couple of people and then decided it was the right time to tell the truth. WRONG!!!! Nicholas started crying. I felt like such a horrible parent. I then tried to save the day by saying if you want you can always believe in your heart. Through his sobbing tears he said, "I WANT TO BELIEVE". In a way I am relieved that I don't have to make up any more stories but I am also sad that this little piece on innocence is lost. I guess the bright side is we can now focus on the true meaning of Christmas.

December Happenings!

On December 20th Dale and I celebrated our 18th anniversary. I am so happy to be married to such a wonderful man. He is a great father, husband, provider and worthy Priesthood holder. Best of all he laughs at my jokes. Thanks to my in-laws who watched Nicholas for us so we could have a night to ourselves.
The Monday before Christmas our family went caroling with a couple other families. We had such an enjoyable time despite the rain. Thanks for the invite Lisa.
Christmas Eve was spent with Dale's family. My niece Kealani is now 7 months and adorable. We don't get to see her very often. Nicholas loved holding her and feeding her.
Christmas morning was quiet and relaxing. Later that day the Mike, Stephanie, Brayden and Carter Hill and Darren, Natalie, Alexander and Courtney Roos came over for dinner. We had a wonderful Turkey dinner that was a group effort. The kids enjoyed playing together as the adults talked and played games. I grew up in a family with 8 kids so I could not imagine having a Christmas dinner without at least 10 people. I am so thankful for good friends that joined in our celebration.
A few days ago I was washing dishes and listening to an Amy Grant Christmas CD. As she was singing a song about the Savior's birth I was overcome with emotion. In that moment I felt so much gratitude for our Savior. His gift of eternal life is so much greater that any other gift. We are all so blessed. I am thankful for these quiets moments that remind me what is important.

The family, Nicholas, Kealani (our niece), Dale and Me (Gailine).

Kealani and her mother Rowena.

Nicholas feeding Kealani

Grandma and Grandpa Boice with Nicholas, Kealani and Joshua.

Opening gifts at Grandma and Grandpa's

Christmas Morning at home.

Christmas Morning again.


Christmas Dinner with the Hill's and the Roos'.

Christmas dinner, Darren seems to be the only one that escaped the pictures.

Nick's Friend Party

After Nick's 4th birthday party I made a deal with him. I was a bit traumatized with the 17 kids I had invited so I told him that every other year he would have a friend party and on the opposite years he would have a family party. This was once again the year for a friend party. Because his birthday was the day after Thanksgiving we bumped his party to a week later and had it on December 6th. He actually ended up having more than one party because we had to celebrate on his actual birthday. Anyway I was smart this time when I limited him to 5 friends. When I asked him which 5 friends he wanted to invite his first 2 choices were his cousins Makoto(18) and Yukino(16). I thought it was so sweet that he would give up 2 friend spots for his cousins. When I told him he could invite 5 friends and his cousins he was estatic. Brayden Ahern, Derick Farabee, Nicholas Allen and Ryan Wresh were the 4 friends that were able to make we. The kids had a blast eating pizza, spending over 300 tokens, getting prizes and eating cake. It was nice to not have a house to clean up afterward. Thank you Mr. C. I Love how they are all stuffing their little faces with Pizza.

Before

After

Isn't he adorable!

I don't know why but Nicholas was thrilled to get a picture with Chuckie.

The Family. As many of you know this is what ended up going on our Christmas card this year. No time for professional pictures. Maybe next year.

Thanksgiving/Nick's 6th Birthday

Blowing out the candle. Instead of buying an expensive cake I bought Nicholas 2 Star Wars figurines that he placed on top of the cake. By the way Nicholas baked this cake from start to finish by himself. He is quite the cook for a 6 year old.



Nicholas with just a few of his many cousins. Front: Breanne, Addriana, Nicholas. Back: Keaton, Janine, Gracie, Makoto, Alex, Yukino. It is so fun that Nicholas has his birthday so close to Thanksgiving. As a result he always has lots of family around. Growing up our birthday's were always just family so I love family parties.

Opening Presents. Nicholas loved all of his presents, Batman, Power Rangers, a football, new sketchers, Mario Kart and Kung Fu Panda.

This is all the family that stayed at our home over the Thanksgiving weekend. Starting on the left Gracie, Addriana, Brian, Breanne, Nicholas, Makoto, Cathenia, Dale, Janine, Alex, Bryon, Keaton and Michael.

Sisters! Cathenia and I have always been very close even though she is 7 years older than me. I am so lucky to have such a wonderful sister.

Thanksgiving this year was awesome. I think every year just keeps getting better. I knew we were going to have 10 extra people staying over and I knew it would get a little chaotic so I was determined to just let go and not stress. It ended up being so much fun. It started Midnight Wednesday when I was invited over to Jeanene Vespers for a nummy waffle/pancake puff fest. It was fun for my sister to meet some of my friends. She had a great time and said she wished she had friends like mine. Thanks guys you're awesome. The next day we had an amazing Turkey dinner with a lot of help from my sister Cathenia and niece Breanne. Nicholas even helped peel potatoes. I prepared some of the food the day before so it wouldn't be so stressful. After dinner and resting for a bit we went out and played football. It was so much fun. We came home sang Happy Birthday to Nicholas, opened presents, ate dessert and played games. We then studied the paper for Friday shopping. My sister Cathenia, nieces Janine and Breanne and I went out the next morning at 5am. We had a great time. Later that day some of us went to the Football game while others came with me and took Nicholas to the movies and to dinner since this was his actual birthday. Saturday was spent relaxing and then shopping in the afternoon. That night we had a fire in the backyard. Later we played games until 1am. We knew everyone would be leaving the next day so it was hard to go to bed. It was so sad in the morning when everyone had to leave. I ended up with a migraine and could not even go to church. Maybe it was a migraine caused from heartbreak. Thanks to all who came and made this the best Thanksgiving ever.

Canada Company

November has been a busy month. The weekend before Thanksgiving my friend Gloria Elaschuk visited from Canada with her friend Sam. Gloria and I have been friends since college. When Gloria and I first met she hated me because we were sort of dating the same guy. I of course was completely innocent and did not know they were dating. The guy is now long out of the picture and we have remained friends all these years. While she was down here we went to a Sun's game, shopped, ate, went to the casino, shopped some more and ate some more. It was great having her down and also fun to reminisce about the good old days.